Egypt, Of All Countries, Condemns U.S. Treatment of Ferguson Protestors

Egyptian police fire water cannons to disperse a protest by secular anti-government activists in Cairo in 2013
(AP)

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Update

4:31 p.m.: State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf has responded to (and rejected) the international criticism of the Ferguson police. Via ABC:

We here in the United States will put our record for confronting our problems transparently and honestly and openly up against any other countries in the world. When we have problems and issues in this country, we deal with them openly and honestly. We think that’s important, and I would encourage the countries you named particularly to do the same thing.”

It's unknown whether or not Harf dropped the mic and walked away.

Original Post

Last week, Egypt was the subject of an extensive and damning Human Rights Watch report. The report detailed the army's likely crimes against humanities and the premeditated murder of over 1,000 protestors in the aftermath of the deposing of Muslim Brotherhood leader and former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

As we noted, Egypt responded by claiming that Human Rights Watch had acted illegally in assembling the report and violated Egypt's sovereignty. They even barred Human Rights Watch chief Ken Roth from entering the country to launch the report, detaining him for "security reasons" for 12 hours. They've conducted massive sham trials and detained and arrested journalists for doing reporting critical of the military rule.

But they've also got an opinion on Ferguson. According to Reuters, Egypt issued a statement condemning the United States in light of the Ferguson protests that have gripped the nation.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry's statement on the unrest in Ferguson read similarly to one issued by U.S. President Barack Obama's administration in July 2013, when the White House "urged security forces to exercise maximum restraint and caution" in dealing with demonstrations by Mursi supporters.

The statement added that Egypt would be "closely following the escalation of protests."

Egypt wasn't alone. The Supreme Leader of Iran, who greenlit the state-sponsored hanging of two gay men last week, also weighed in on Twitter:

US govt is #unreliable& egotistical; due to Zionist domination over it,US prefers #Israel’s interests 2 that of its nation.10/5/13 #Ferguson

He was joined by Syria, killer of 170,000 people, the state media of which accused the American police carry out "racist and oppressive practices"

On Monday, media outlets as far and wide on the American political spectrum as the National Review Online and the Daily Kos reported the urgings of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for Americans to conform to “international standards in dealing with demonstrations.”